Law enforcement personnel, as well as other tactical security personnel, are often called to either halt a fleeing vehicle, or to disable a vehicle that has trespassed into a secure area. It is desirable in these circumstances to slow the vehicle by partially, or completely, disabling the vehicle. One popular method of disabling a vehicle is by deflating its tires. Those skilled in the art appreciate that firing weapons at a fleeing vehicles tires is inefficient, often ineffective and presents an unacceptable risk of injury to law enforcement/security personnel or bystanders. Accordingly, a number of devices have been developed to serve as partial or complete barricades or that can be deployed across a roadway for the purpose of puncturing a vehicles pneumatic tires as the vehicle passes over the device. In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,832, issued to Kilgrow, et al., on Jul. 7, 1998, discloses a compact tire deflator having pivotally connected opposing panels and one or more hollow spikes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,293, issued to Groen et al., on Oct. 13, 1998, discloses a vehicle tire deflation device comprising a base and a plurality of hollow tire deflating quills secured to the base. The base is configured so as to provide a tire penetrating orientation and a non-tire penetrating orientation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,849, issued to Pacholok et al., on Nov. 24, 1998, discloses a mechanical tire deflating device that deploys a folded deflating spike under a vehicle desired to be stopped. The spikes are extended when the mechanical device is under the vehicle to be stopped. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,408, issued to Abukhader, on Mar. 18, 1997, discloses a vehicle disabling device that is propelled by a chase vehicle and deploys beneath a vehicle to be stopped. When deployed, the device extends a plurality of spikes that destroy and deflate the fleeing vehicle's tires. U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,109, issued to Lowndes, on Jul. 16, 1996, discloses a road vehicle halting device comprising a support member, a plurality of support elements and means for mounting the support elements on the support member in which each of the supporting elements supports a generally upwardly extending spike. The Lowndes device is configured in a "lazy tong" configuration and teaches that the spikes are pulled from the spike cups as the vehicle rolls over the device.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,756, issued to Kilgrow et al., on Feb. 26, 1991, discloses a vehicle tire deflator having a pivoting tong configuration which utilizes a series of rocker arms and actuators to cant the spikes toward the tire upon impact. Kilgrow et al. teach that the spike is pulled from the socket as the tire rolls over the device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,950, issued to Kilgrow et al., on Oct. 19, 1993, (and reissue U.S. Pat. No. Re. 35,373 issued on Nov. 5, 1996) discloses an improvement over the device disclosed in Kilgrow et al. '756. U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,714, issued to Hutchison, on May 10, 1983, discloses a vehicle disabling means in the form of a plurality of spike like devices adapted to project perpendicular to a road surface to puncture one or more of a vehicle's tires. U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,059, issued to Groblebe, on Mar. 28, 1972, discloses a tire puncturing device to impede movement of a vehicle which utilizes a plurality of hollow, sharpened nail-like members releasably secured in spaced relation along the length and width of an elongated strip spread across the width of a roadway. U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,397, issued to Soleau, on Jan. 9, 1996, discloses a tire deflator which utilizes a spike and its associate support block being supported by a support mechanism adapted such that the spike and support block separate from the support mechanism as the tire rolls over the support mechanism.
Other devices known to the inventors include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,774, issued to Dubiel, on Jun. 23, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,292, issued to Williams, on Jul. 12, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,385, issued to Reisman, on Jun. 21, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,579, issued to Chadwick, on Mar. 31, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,962, issued to Greves, on Sep. 26, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,285, issued to Greves et al., on Jul. 19, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,588, issued to Marts et al., on Apr. 16, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,164, issued to Nasatka, on Feb. 22, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,554, issued to Dias-Silveira, on Nov. 7, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,600, issued to Wagner, on Nov. 25, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,235, issued to Nelson, on Jul. 18, 1978; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,303, issued to Glasmire, on Oct. 1, 1985.
While a number of the known devices teach that the spike is removed from a cup or socket as the tire rolls over the device, leaving the cup or socket undamaged to be refilled, our experience has shown that frequently the support arms themselves are damaged and that adapting the cup from a frangible material so that the pressure of the tire rolling over the spike and cup crushes the cup results in a greater number of spikes remaining in the tire. It has also been determined that different size vehicles react to spikes of a given height in different manners. For instance, spikes that are short enough to penetrate a passenger car-sized tire are often too short to penetrate truck or bus tires. However, a passenger car-sized tire will push over a spike that is long enough to completely penetrate a bus or truck tire tread.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a road spike device for deflating a vehicle tire that utilizes spikes received by a spike cup that is made of a frangible material such that the spike cup disintegrates as the tire rolls onto and over the spike.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a road spike device that is preferably in a self-extending tong configuration and in which the individual arms are readily removeable and replaceable.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a road spike device which utilizes spikes of alternating heights so as to be effective for deflating tires of varying sizes for various types of vehicles.
Other objects and advantages over the prior art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description together with the drawings as described as follows.